Piston Assembly
In Fall 2019, I took a Computer Aided Design course which focused on SolidWordks CAD. I ended up completing the class and earning my Professional Level Solidworks Certification (CSWP).
Project Goal:
The course project for this course involved designing a an assembly of three parts that will interact with each other. I was tasked with designing the three individual parts and combining them into an assembly. Additionally, I had to make drawings of the individual parts and assemblies.
Idea:
Since I have a background and interest in automotive applications, I decided to model a piston assembly for my project. My goal was to design the piston head, piston arm and crankshaft and combine it together into an assembly. I also designed a quick mock-up of an engine block to put the parts into and create the correct mates as well as a motion study to show the movement of the pistons.
Design Results:
I designed each of the individual parts based off of actual piston assembly parts that I have seen. Each of these individual parts is displayed in the gallery to the right.
In designing the piston arm, I decided to offset the arm so that two pistons on opposite sides of the engine could be aligned at the piston head, but held on the same crankshaft position.
After designing the individual parts, I used a series of mates to connect them into an assembly. Below you can find the full report on designing the parts step by step along with some sustainability analysis and toolpath verification done through Solidworks.
Individual Solidworks Parts
Individual Solidworks Drawings
Motion of Piston Assembly
Exploded View Animation
Toolpath Verification